From The Blog

Carpe Diem

Carpe Diem – Seize the Day! This powerful dictum always brings me back to Robin Williams’ moving portrayal of the beloved and inspiring professor in the film Dead Poet’s Society. It is a call to action, a renewal of the spirit and a return to optimism and determination, like the feeling of hopeful yearning we experience when we pledge those New Year’s resolutions. As the clock ticks away the final minutes of the old year, the excitement can be intoxicating. But so often we fail. After the rush of the New Year’s celebration fades and reality sets in, those ambitions can once again seem insurmountable. The truth is we very often unknowingly set ourselves up for failure.

Maybe this year we can keep a few rules in mind: Be realistic, keep it simple, and understand that self-motivation is essential when it comes to making real changes in your life. You have to be the one who is convinced you need to make a change. You have to really want it; your desire to make the change has to be greater than the desire to keep things the same. If you’ve ever spoken to someone who successfully stopped smoking or made any significant and lasting lifestyle change and asked them how they did it, the answer is always the same: “I wanted it and I just did it!”

Be realistic. Create short-term goals and make changes in small steps that are part of longer-term goals. If you need to lose twenty-five pounds, focus on losing five pounds. And instead of trying to lose five pounds in a week, focus on losing one pound a week. Acknowledge and reward your efforts and progress each step of the way, and never abandon your goals because of momentary failure or neediness. Remind yourself where you were last week or last month. If you are doing anything more than before, you have made progress. If you remain on the path you have chosen and your goals remain in view, your chance of attaining them becomes ever more likely.

Don’t get caught up in the false hope of quick fixes when it comes to making lifestyle changes. It is unfair and foolish to think that decades of unhealthful habits can be eradicated in a week or two.

Finally, don’t fall into the trap that fixing one thing you think has gone wrong is going to change your life. Getting to your ideal weight or driving a fancier car does not equal happiness. It’s not about trading places with someone else who seems to be better off than you are, or looking like the model on the cover of Vogue or GQ, and it’s not about turning back the hands of time. It’s about striving to be the best version of you at this moment and investing in your future. Health and happiness comes as a result of taking better care of you, inside and out, and requires addressing a multitude of factors every day of our lives. Don’t wait for all the stars to be in some perfect alignment; start now in the midst of everything. Today is the first day of the rest of your life.